EDITORIAL

The Real Obscenity is Campaign Finance

Elephant dung on a drawing of the Virgin Mary makes headlines
because it shocks the sensibilities of New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani. The fact that corporations can rent politicians and
political parties for their special interests hardly qualifies as a
shocker anymore.

Which represents the greater obscenity? That a mediocre artist
gets national publicity for putting dung on his paintings, or that
candidates, to have a serious chance of gaining and keeping elective
office, must engage in constant fundraising that forces them to rely
on the generosity of lobbyists for corporate interests.

I suppose the good news for potential candidates is that they can
get all the money they need if they are willing to go along with
whatever the banks, insurance, tobacco, telecommunications and other
big-money industralists want. Principles are for also-rans, the wise
guys say.

Most people think there is a crying need for campaign finance
reform, starting with the "bare bones" bill that Senators John
McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wisc., are trying to get
through the Senate. That bill would simply ban "soft money"
contributions by corporations and labor unions to political parties
for use in federal elections. Corporate officers and lobbyists could
still bribe politicians. They just would have to do it $1,000 at a
time, as regular campaign contributions. However, Senator Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky, remains the implacable foe of campaign finance
reform, and he apparently has enough support from his Republican
colleagues to keep even limited reforms from passing. Instead he
wants to raise the $1,000 individual contribution limit to
candidates. The limit has not been increased since it was set in
1974, McConnell noted. "Clearly, there has been an enormous erosion
of purchasing power over the last 25 years," he said. Clearly
McConnell has no sense of shame.

Doris "Granny D" Haddock may yet put McConnell to shame. This
great-grandmother, a retired secretary from Dublin, N.H., already has
trekked 2,200 miles, from Los Angeles to Nashville so far, seeking to
draw attention to the need for campaign finance reform. She expects
to arrive in Washington, D.C., in time for her 90th birthday next
January 24. Despite arthritis, emphysema, sore feet and other aches
and pains, Granny D has kept up a schedule of walking 10 miles a day
through southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas and
Tennessee, getting food and shelter from people in communities along
the way. She is a modern pilgrim seeking to restore democracy. She
speaks to whomever will listen -- and more people are getting the
message. In Pecos, Texas, she spoke at a Cancer Society walking relay
about turning personal loss into something of beauty, as she did
after the deaths of her husband and a close friend. She took a day
off from her trek through Texas to fly up to Dearborn, Mich., in July
to speak to the Reform Party convention [see her remarks in the
9/99 Progressive Populist].

In her journal, posted online at www.grannyd.com, she wrote from
Benton, Ark., in August, "To the extent that public policy is decided
by the monied special interests, we are not a practicing democracy."
She told of meeting people who were reluctant to vote anymore because
they felt it could not compare with a $5,000 PAC check, or a $100,000
soft money contribution. She urges them not to give up.

She has spoken at Little Rock's First Baptist Church, from a
pulpit from which Dr. Martin Luther King preached in the 1960s. She
challenged "The Apologists of Corruption" in a speech at the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis, where Dr. King was assassinated. She entered
Nashville the morning of October 8 flanked by U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp,
R-Tennessee, who helped lead the campaign reform effort in the House,
and Sen. Feingold. She read the names of 44 recipients of the
Congressional Medal of Honor from Tennessee, and added, "for each
name, there are thousands of other Tennessee men and women who have
dedicated their lives -- and sometimes sacrificed their lives -- to
protect our freedoms.

"These sacrifices were not made so that special interests and big
money might take control of our institutions of self-governance. If
we indeed let that happen, then we are not honoring the price that
has been paid for our freedoms." She issued this challenge: "Do the
right thing, Senators. Pass this bill that Mr. Feingold and Mr.
McCain have put before you and that the common men and women of
America long for. Be brave against your financial needs. Be brave
against your party's needs. Do what your mother and your grandmother
would have you do in the name of all your family members who have
sacrificed so much for our freedoms."

In a speech to Tennessee Common Cause in Nashville on Oct. 9,
Granny D also talked about democracy as a work in progress. "We are
fortunate, then, that the forces of greed and deception are always
busy out there, giving us the gift of a good fight, which is exactly
what we are are on this earth for," she said.

The McCain-Feingold ban on soft money won't stop corporate
interests from financing candidates and calling the shots in
Congress. That would require something on the order of public
financing of candidates, which would allow an ordinary person to run
for Congress -- something neither corporations nor incumbents want to
encourage. However, the ban on soft money is a start. And Republicans
will have to be shown that those who stand in the way of campaign
finance reform will be defeated at the polls. Organize a walk in
solidarity with Granny D, even if you're nowhere near her route. Then
see who votes against McCain-Feingold and send your old shoes to the
"foot draggers," c/o U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510. For more
information, see her wonderful web site at www.grannyd.com.

Bill Bradley has a plan to expand health coverage to the working
poor and their children. Good for him. Bill Clinton virtually
abandoned efforts to expand heath coverage after his administration
botched an attempt at health care reform in 1994. Since then, despite
the economic boom on Wall Street, the number of uninsured has risen
to 44 million, as welfare deform has forced parents to take low-wage
jobs without health benefits even as they lose Medicaid coverage for
themselves and their children. The Democratic leadership counted it
as a victory when they put together a coalition with moderate
Republicans in the House to pass a bill allowing managed-care
patients to sue their health maintenance organizations. However, the
bill would do little good for the uninsured and anyway it is unlikely
to survive reconciliation with the more niggardly Senate version.

Bradley, the former senator from New Jersey, put forth a plan that
would provide tax credits for children in families with annual income
under $32,800 and partial insurance subsidies for household incomes
up to $49,200. He would subsidize coverage for adults in low-wage
households under $16,400 income, with partial subsidies for
households up to $32,800. In addition, Bradley would let all
Americans buy into the existing federal employees' health insurance
system. He also would expand Medicare to help elderly Americans pay
for prescription drugs.

His plan is not universal health coverage, which we prefer. The
Bradley plan would keep insurance companies and HMOs in charge of
health care, raking their profits off the top. However, Bradley's
plan would be a step toward the day when we have a single-payer plan
that takes the burden off businesses to provide for health coverage,
lets patients pick their doctors and removes insurance company
bureaucrats from the health care process. To those who criticize that
Bradley's plan would spend the projected federal budget surplus over
the next 10 years, we reply "What better use for budget surpluses
than to expand health care." -- Jim Cullen